Week # 1

Well this past week wasn't really all relaxing. We've travelled on air, on land and on sea and it took me three days to finally take a bath but eight days and ten more pounds later.. here I am. We've actually been to alot of places this week. Places I haven't really thought of going. Like Quebec and Montreal. I just recently noticed my introverted side was actually showing. I suck at talking to people over here! And just when I thought I broke the 180 pound barrier, I gain another ten pounds! This was also the time that I promised myself that I wouldn't be thinking about my problems, but on a gift shop in Ottawa I saw her name written on a pink slipper key-chain on a shelf --I couldn't help but think about the philippines for a little while. So far things are great, I just wish I dont balloon up when I get back. Ciao!

posted by Wowie @ Tuesday, April 25, 2006

The U.S of A

This marks my fifth visit to "the land of the free" this also means that it's been ten years since I first touched their soil. I can't help but not feel excited though for some reason. But still, I figured this is exactly what the doctor ordered! I think it's best if I leave things behind here --like my already screwed up love life for example. If I needed the time to unwind.. now would be a good time. See y'all in three weeks!

posted by Wowie @ Saturday, April 15, 2006

Glam metal and "Lite" rock

Music appreciation week returns! I woke up bright and early one day last week and decided to broaden my music taste. I chose two genres to download for some reasons I'll soon explain. It may seem like a really weird combination but they're both very good "in their own special ways".


Glam metal: This genre really isn't very unfamiliar. Im a big "Van halen" fan --a Glam metal band. I decided to pick up some songs from this genre just to expand my taste and to know the resemblance of these bands to VH. (they obviously can't compare!) Glam metal was famous in the 1980's and is known for it's distinctive "synthesized" drum beats ,heavy guitar riffs and sex-oriented lyrics. I find them ridiculous looking in their spandex clothing though! The genre sort of went to the backseat though during the 90's with the arrival of Grunge but it's slowly making a comeback in recent years. Famous bands of this genre include Van halen, Def leppard, Ratt, Cinderella, Whitesnake, Skid row just to name a few. What you're listening to right now is a song from the band "Whitesnake". for extensive listening:

Ratt - "Lovin' you is a dirty job"

Whitesnake - "Sweet cherry pie"

Cinderella - "Somebody save me"

"Lite" rock: I chose to explore this genre recently because of the incoming holy week. And maybe also from the band me and Luigi have been making... I just picked it up from him somehow. The name Lite rock doesn't leave much to the imagination. It's simply.... "Light"! I have played one song here before entitled "Escape" by Rupert Holmes that would be a perfect example...You think I'd play it again? are you kidding me?! For extensive listening:

Rupert Holmes - Escape and Touch and Go

Bread - anything Bread! except "Mother freedom"

posted by Wowie @ Saturday, April 15, 2006

What flavor of ice cream are you?

Your Icecream Flavour is...Chocolate!

You are the all time favorite, chocolate! Turning white kids black since the 1800s. Staining carpets, car seats, and bed sheets for centuries. One thing is for sure, you will never go out of style. You can't go wrong with chocolate!

What is your Icecream Flavour?
Find out at Go Quiz

posted by Wowie @ Sunday, April 09, 2006

The Terrifying guitar trip


If all else fails, (or at least if your friends bail on you) One of the things left to do around the house is to play the electric guitar. I know I didn't have to wait for summer to do is (Cause guitar playing did become an issue at some point to some people) but I've really set my sights on accomplishing big things this summer with the electric guitar. This time around, I dont have to worry about my grades slipping or otherwise thinking that Im spending too much time playing guitar alone and not being able to please some people. This time, Im entitled to my own schedule mainly because I got no obligations to fulfill and practically nobody to contact since I've been living in solitude. (Except for a few notable people) I've actually started a couple of days ago. With the summer's intense heat and all the concentration trying to study songs note for note, I felt like I was in a sauna. I was pretty much sweating bullets. But Im glad to know Im getting somewhere. And what better way to find inspiration to practice than to watch Eddie Van halen perform live. This particular performance was from a Saturday Night Live dated February 28, 1987 with coincidentally, Eddie's wife (or Ex-wife I should say) Valerie Bertinelli as guest host. I really enjoyed this clip and I really got to learn a few techniques just watching it... oh, maybe a couple of hundreds of times. Enjoy!

posted by Wowie @ Tuesday, April 04, 2006

8-29 (2)

I remember posting a short story here called "Oh, Marieton Pacheco" by Adam David not long ago. I forgot to post the rest of the story. Well, here it is.


Marieton Pacheco and I are on an air-conditioned bus to Novaliches, to meet her parents who financed her way through four years in MassComm. It is a sunny Saturday afternoon outside the window, the sort that invites bearded street preachers to bring the Word of the Lord into air-conditioned bus aisles. Our bus is parked near where People's Park used to be. Marieton is holding my hand, and I hers. Her grip is firm, like a little girl holding her brother's hand as they make their way inside a Star City funhouse. I'm contemplating about tickling the inside of her palm with my middle-finger when she asks me about my relationship with my father. "Are the two of you close?" she asks me. She waits for my answer with a pout.

"Well, we don't fish every other Saturday or anything as such. He knows who I date and he calls me up every now and then, but that's it." I half-lie to her. My father and I used to fish every other Saturday, by a stagnant lake whose shores he used to run motorbikes on back when he was a rebel without a cause. The lake had carp and catfish in it, not good enough to eat, so we kept them inside buckets filled with lake-water that we'd empty-out back into the lake by the end of the fishing day, fish and algae and all. We started the fishing trips when I was five years old and we stopped when the thicket got too thick for us to hack our way through. I used to joke my friends about how my father and I got acquainted with about five or six generations of fish all from one lake, back in those days.

"How does he look like? Does he look like you?" Marieton strokes my chin, where a few loose strands of stringy hair grow half-heartedly. I wrinkle my nose and slowly shake my head left-to-right, which makes her giggle. She recovers and then strokes my pathetic goatee again, asking "Does he have a beard?"

I stroke her hairless chin and wonder about what other body parts of hers don't have any hair, and I tell her how my father always believed that women love bearded men, as it suggests virility and makes women think of other body parts that have short thick curly hair growing around them. "That's what he tells me, at least. I don't believe him, personally."

Marieton takes all these information in calmly. She looks out the window, up to the giant inflatable Champola installation on a building's rooftop. It looks like it lost its taste a few months ago.

Still looking out the window, Marieton nods, as if to say "That's good". She looks back into the bus, turning to me, her grip on my hand growing stronger as our eyes meet. It's a staring contest for about half a minute, and then her pout breaks and she says "I don't mind you suggesting your virility with a beard, but promise me that you won't grow a moustache, please?" It takes me two seconds to decide my future. I take both of her hands and I hold them together with mine, as if praying in unison. I look into her eyes and I promise her that I will forever be moustache-free.

"Besides," I add. "I always have been a weak moustache cultivator." Marieton smiles and hugs me and kisses me where moustaches were meant to grow, in their place now grows Love. "Thank you for not asking why. Thank you for understanding," she tells me. I kiss and hug her back and I tell her "For you Marieton, anything."

posted by Wowie @ Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Too much

Sometimes, The way I start to notice how much Im into my break is when I start notice my gut's getting bigger. It gets boring after awhile and there's nothing left to do but hang around, eat and drink beer. I've practically spent my afternoons in solitude except for times I've gone to jam sessions or I've gone to a party. It's been a long time since I've had a donor guitar swing my way and I can't commit to anything lengthy because of my plans after holy week which leaves me with this week-long void I cant fill with anything. It seems like this to me --It sounds so good when you say you want a day that you have nothing to do. but when you're finally left with nothing, you want something. Such is the case in my scenario. My head's literally turning into stone cause of all the boredom. I just learned that it doesn't leave much difference between school and summer. They can get as boring as hell if you dont get out there. Can't somebody help me! I need to get out more.

posted by Wowie @ Tuesday, April 04, 2006